The three main concerns I have about bitcoin

[Jaseph]

Maybe these have already been addressed, but here they are.

1) Early adopters may have stashes of millions of bitcoin. If widely adopted a few super rich could have a huge influence over the whole bitcoin economy. Imagine owning 5% of all USD in circulation(with no fed to inflate).

2) The supply is fixed at 21 million, but bitcoins themselves are not permanent. People die all the time without wills. People die with btc on a computer/flashdrive that no one knows about, they're gone. People don't make backups, their computer crashes, they're gone. You might think this is great, because now your btc are more valuable. But for a currency, it's not such a good thing, to have the supply eroding over time. Theoreticly, the amount of btc could eventually go to zero.

3) Speed of transactions. If btc becomes very widely adopted, can it handle billions of transactions a day without speed becoming an issue?

Don't get me wrong. I love bitcoin and the whole concept behind it. These are just questions of someone looking to learn more.

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[LostDutchman]

Maybe these have already been addressed, but here they are.

1) Early adopters may have stashes of millions of bitcoin. If widely adopted a few super rich could have a huge influence over the whole bitcoin economy. Imagine owning 5% of all USD in circulation(with no fed to inflate).

2) The supply is fixed at 21 million, but bitcoins themselves are not permanent. People die all the time without wills. People die with btc on a computer/flashdrive that no one knows about, they're gone. People don't make backups, their computer crashes, they're gone. You might think this is great, because now your btc are more valuable. But for a currency, it's not such a good thing, to have the supply eroding over time. Theoreticly, the amount of btc could eventually go to zero.

3) Speed of transactions. If btc becomes very widely adopted, can it handle billions of transactions a day without speed becoming an issue?

Don't get me wrong. I love bitcoin and the whole concept behind it. These are just questions of someone looking to learn more.

Don't worry about it.

Buy low, sell high, hold some.

Mine, sell high, keep some.

[Elwar]

1) Early adopters may have stashes of millions of bitcoin. If widely adopted a few super rich could have a huge influence over the whole bitcoin economy. Imagine owning 5% of all USD in circulation(with no fed to inflate).

"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it."

http://capitalismmagazine.com/2002/08/franciscos-money-speech/

[QuestionAuthority]

1) Think about the currency you use at the store everyday. Your government can always print more and always have more than you and they own more than 5% of its value.

2) Scarcity creates value

3) It will serve the people that use it for its intended purpose quite well and is already faster than many alternatives such as bank wire.

[kodo]

Most of your cknerns really arent valid

[CurbsideProphet]

Maybe these have already been addressed, but here they are.

1) Early adopters may have stashes of millions of bitcoin. If widely adopted a few super rich could have a huge influence over the whole bitcoin economy. Imagine owning 5% of all USD in circulation(with no fed to inflate).

There's only 11.2 million BTC that have been mined to date so it stands to reason that it's not possible for adopters (plural) to have "stashes of millions of bitcoin."  Millions of dollars in Bitcoin, but not millions of Bitcoin.  Also, the blockchain is public ledger so you can see which addresses hold the most amount of coins.  Granted, an early adopter may own numerous "whale" addresses, but I think if you look them over, you'll still see it's not possible that a small handful of people are holding millions of coin.

2) The supply is fixed at 21 million, but bitcoins themselves are not permanent. People die all the time without wills. People die with btc on a computer/flashdrive that no one knows about, they're gone. People don't make backups, their computer crashes, they're gone. You might think this is great, because now your btc are more valuable. But for a currency, it's not such a good thing, to have the supply eroding over time. Theoreticly, the amount of btc could eventually go to zero.

Theoretically supply can go to zero but not practically.  Remember that Bitcoin is currently divisible to the 8th decimal (and this can be increased) so you shouldn't look at it as 21 million and no more.  The supply is fixed, this is true, but since you can divide each "coin" into fractional amounts, there's enough to service the world's needs if needed.

3) Speed of transactions. If btc becomes very widely adopted, can it handle billions of transactions a day without speed becoming an issue?

Don't get me wrong. I love bitcoin and the whole concept behind it. These are just questions of someone looking to learn more.

I think this is and will continue to be an evolving process as we are currently seeing with "dust" transactions.  Wider adoption means more miners and a stronger network so I think you need to account for the increase in network and infrastructure that would arise only in a mass adoption scenario.

[franky1]

Maybe these have already been addressed, but here they are.

1) Early adopters may have stashes of millions of bitcoin. If widely adopted a few super rich could have a huge influence over the whole bitcoin economy. Imagine owning 5% of all USD in circulation(with no fed to inflate).
and once they sell their 5% of BTC the buyers of that 5% then have the control.. look at gold.. initially the US owned most of it in fort knox. now you can buy it at vending machines in dubai...

2) The supply is fixed at 21 million, but bitcoins themselves are not permanent. People die all the time without wills. People die with btc on a computer/flashdrive that no one knows about, they're gone. People don't make backups, their computer crashes, they're gone. You might think this is great, because now your btc are more valuable. But for a currency, it's not such a good thing, to have the supply eroding over time. Theoreticly, the amount of btc could eventually go to zero.
think about all the gold in peoples teeth fillings and in motherboards, and jewellry which are now in coffins/landfill underground, lost forever. eventually one day in many decades someone may have a fast enough computer to unhash a private key from its public key, and redeem the lost coins.. anythings possible.. calm down getting to zero is something your grand kids wont even have to worry about

3) Speed of transactions. If btc becomes very widely adopted, can it handle billions of transactions a day without speed becoming an issue?
this is probably the first valid worry that would appear in your lifetime. but there are multiple solutions to it. such as using paperwallets as bearer bond certificates. handing them across to trusted parties away from the network. also off the chain exchanges such as mtgox use to do, swapping mtgox codes between users instead of transactions on the blockchain. plus many other solutions to grow in the future

Don't get me wrong. I love bitcoin and the whole concept behind it. These are just questions of someone looking to learn more.

[tclo]

I think you make some very good points...all three of them.  And especially the fact that transactions take long enough as it is, so double or triple that and it really get absurd.

[kodo]

1st point valid other points invalid

[Melbustus]

Maybe these have already been addressed, but here they are.

1) Early adopters may have stashes of millions of bitcoin. If widely adopted a few super rich could have a huge influence over the whole bitcoin economy. Imagine owning 5% of all USD in circulation(with no fed to inflate).

2) The supply is fixed at 21 million, but bitcoins themselves are not permanent. People die all the time without wills. People die with btc on a computer/flashdrive that no one knows about, they're gone. People don't make backups, their computer crashes, they're gone. You might think this is great, because now your btc are more valuable. But for a currency, it's not such a good thing, to have the supply eroding over time. Theoreticly, the amount of btc could eventually go to zero.

3) Speed of transactions. If btc becomes very widely adopted, can it handle billions of transactions a day without speed becoming an issue?

Don't get me wrong. I love bitcoin and the whole concept behind it. These are just questions of someone looking to learn more.

Echoing some other responses...

1) I think the upper-bound is Satoshi with a *max* estimated 1 million coins. Not likely the other early folks have more than a couple hundred thousand. That is indeed huge influence, but an order of magnitude less than you're worrying about. Those balances are likely to disperse a good deal as bitcoin value increases.

2) Divisibility is really important. In a currency that's a pain to divide and transport, yeah, diminishing supply becomes problematic. But with bitcoin's divisibility, the world could function fluidly on 1 million coins if necessary (and divisibility can theoretically be increased by orders of magnitude too).

3) This rightly gets a lot of attention, with a lot of proposed solutions. Off chain transactions, various remedies to 0-confirms, Open Transactions, etc... Solutions will arise as the need becomes paramount.

[TippingPoint]

Maybe these have already been addressed, but here they are.

1) Early adopters may have stashes of millions of bitcoin. If widely adopted a few super rich could have a huge influence over the whole bitcoin economy. Imagine owning 5% of all USD in circulation(with no fed to inflate).

2) The supply is fixed at 21 million, but bitcoins themselves are not permanent. People die all the time without wills. People die with btc on a computer/flashdrive that no one knows about, they're gone. People don't make backups, their computer crashes, they're gone. You might think this is great, because now your btc are more valuable. But for a currency, it's not such a good thing, to have the supply eroding over time. Theoreticly, the amount of btc could eventually go to zero.

3) Speed of transactions. If btc becomes very widely adopted, can it handle billions of transactions a day without speed becoming an issue?

Don't get me wrong. I love bitcoin and the whole concept behind it. These are just questions of someone looking to learn more.

Don't worry about any of those things.  The fall will probably kill you.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/06/01/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid-the-fall-will-kill-you

[Crystallas]

The wiki covers all of this beautifully. I'm not sure why someone is willing to sift through forum responses to find an answer(because I believe they ask the question after they have come to an early conclusion), when they can just look at the Myths page. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths

[CtrlAltBernanke420]

The wiki covers all of this beautifully. I'm not sure why someone is willing to sift through forum responses to find an answer(because I believe they ask the question after they have come to an early conclusion), when they can just look at the Myths page. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths

I've read the wiki, I am still curious as some of these questions unnerve.

Security, keylogging, lack of a bitcoin supply chain worry me.

Would off chain transaction lead to counterfeit?

I do not exactly understand how moving the decimal places helps. Everyones prices just add or drop a zero, back to square one.

[CtrlAltBernanke420]

Bitcoin being traded for Fiat seems as if it defeats the purpose, but most of you 'early adopters' have no desire to address this as the speculative world makes you fascinatingly richer every time the price increases by $1-$5

[LostDutchman]

Bitcoin being traded for Fiat seems as if it defeats the purpose, but most of you 'early adopters' have no desire to address this as the speculative world makes you fascinatingly richer every time the price increases by $1-$5

Well, for many of us that is the point then, isn't it?

Rich and all that.

I'm not trying to change the World; only make some money.

Preferably a lot of money.

My $.02.

[CtrlAltBernanke420]

from here going forward, how does bitcoin ensure new adoption and capital inflows until the world itself trades in Bitcoin

[TippingPoint]

from here going forward, how does bitcoin ensure new adoption and capital inflows until the world itself trades in Bitcoin

We can't ensure it.  It is not a sure thing.

[CtrlAltBernanke420]

Bitcoin being traded for Fiat seems as if it defeats the purpose, but most of you 'early adopters' have no desire to address this as the speculative world makes you fascinatingly richer every time the price increases by $1-$5

Well, for many of us that is the point then, isn't it?

Rich and all that.

I'm not trying to change the World; only make some money.

Preferably a lot of money.

My $.02.

I know people want to get rich. I must say, i never thought I would hear is so commonly and with no shame, "were not trying to fix the world, money and profits are all I/we care about." That is a disease that nature will eventually deal with.

[CtrlAltBernanke420]

from here going forward, how does bitcoin ensure new adoption and capital inflows until the world itself trades in Bitcoin

We can't ensure it.

Have you heard of a marketing campaign. Yes you can ensure it. Six flags builds a new multimillion dollar rollercoaster everyother year not because its COOL, but because it ensures new and repeat business.

[TippingPoint]

I know people want to get rich. I must say, i never thought I would hear is so commonly and with no shame, "were not trying to fix the world, money and profits are all I/we care about." That is a disease that nature will eventually deal with.

Greed is good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXpaBQnBvE